17: A Step Too Far
by Silent Elegy
Summary: Danny should have known better than to keep his journal on the computer with a gremlin roaming about. He really should have known better than to let her find out about it. Now, the whole school has a copy, and they're beginning to wonder about him.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Danny Phantom and all related characters are the product of Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon studios. Kat/Electra is the property of Silent Elegy.

Pre-Note: Seventeenth in the series, and I've given up trying to avoid straight continuity. It's impossible. So this is a little recap of my previous works for those of you just joining us, though I highly recommend you go read the others anyway. Really, a summary of the stories can't do them proper justice (coughcoughandIlovereviewscough).

* * *

The boy yawned, rubbed his eyes tiredly, and blinked at the monitor. It swam around in front of him, refusing to stay put long enough to let him get any work done. He yawned again and, deciding to finish his homework later, saved his files and shut off the computer. The overhead light was already out, and he was already in his pajamas. With nothing left to hold him back, he stumbled over and fell into bed. 

After a very long time, an invisible wisp of consciousness drifted through the wall. It watched just long enough to ensure that the boy was, indeed, asleep before drifting toward the computer. "Okay, Phantom," Kat whispered and cringed inwardly. She had momentarily forgotten to keep her monologue internal. With a quiet twist of power, the computer once again began to run.

The astral gremlin reveled in the hum of the machine for a few minutes. One of her biggest regrets was that she had no brain for hardware. She could possess it, but she couldn't take it apart and put it back together like her father could. She couldn't even merge different machines together. Software, however, was another matter entirely.

She glanced at the sleeping ghost boy as he snorted and began to snore. It was almost a fight to keep from laughing out loud; at times like that, she was even happier that she didn't have a body. It couldn't turn on her and betray her with its involuntary systems and random noises. Life was certainly better when you didn't need to eat to maintain it.

But she had quite forgotten her purpose. She did have one, after all. Danny had let slip that he kept a diary on his computer. Kat had feigned a complete lack of interest to his relief. Apparently, as many months as they had known each other, he still couldn't tell when she was lying. She would have shaken her head in amusement if she had actually had one.

The computer announced its usual demand for a password, and Paulina Fenton didn't seem to work. Apparently, he had changed it. Well, no matter. Kat came from a long line of genius scientists; the mind of a teenaged boy couldn't be that complicated.

Ten minutes and thirty "Invalid Password"s later, she decided that quantum physics was easier than trying to guess that kid's password and simply hacked her way beyond it. That took another twenty minutes to do; Danny had been hanging around Tucker for way too long.

"Finally!" she exclaimed, then winced and shut off the monitor. The sleeping boy merely muttered something, however; he rolled over, and Kat relaxed again.

The monitor came back on to display the boy's desktop. A few icons littered the screen; she almost squealed in delight when one them was titled, "Diary." She clicked on it, eager to find out exactly what the boy thought of her; her ego demanded that she found out, and she was more than happy to oblige.

"'Nice try, Ms. Technus'...?" She cursed colorfully. Obviously, she had made the same mistake as her father and underestimated the ghost child. It was painfully easy to do, really. He did such a good job of seeming weak and inconsequential.

Another twenty minutes worth of hunting around, and she was just about ready to give up. She had one trick left, but she didn't hold out much hope. There was a good chance Danny had lied to her to see what she would do. However, she reached into the CPU and forced it to tell what she wanted to know. Ten minutes taught her that firewalls built by Tucker actually burned, but she finally found what she was looking for.

"Okay, ghost child," she whispered, glancing impishly at the steadily breathing lump before typing in a search for her name. "Let's see…'It's official; Kat is more annoying than the Box Ghost.' Annoying!"

She allowed her eyes to blaze red for a moment. Since she was still invisible, it caused an effect reminiscent of the Ghost Master's usual appearance, but she didn't pay any attention to that. Her ego demanded retribution for the slight, and she knew just how to get it. With a malicious internal grin, she brought up his email.


	2. Chapter One

Valerie dropped her book bag on the floor in uncaring exhaustion, grateful that the ghosts had done enough damage that school was canceled for the day. Everything had gone just fine until lunch, when the freaky, bi-polar Lunch Lady had shown up. Before she had a chance to do much damage, the ghost that called himself Warden Walker had arrived with about ten of his goons to "apprehend" her. Apparently, he was something like the Ghost Zone police force.

Walker didn't seem very interested in doing much damage, so Valerie had decided to keep a low profile in the hopes that they would just take the Lunch Lady and go. She thought everything would be alright until the haunters from 917 Maple Street decided to defend their territory. The alligator wasn't with them, fortunately; they had done enough damage without adding injuries to the list. Naturally, the ghost kid arrived at that point, and the whole thing turned into a free-for-all. Everyone was attacking everyone else, including the people on their own sides; there was a banshee that the young ghost hunter didn't know about, shape-shifters, and the ghost kid kept throwing himself in any line of fire directed at her.

She wasn't sure what happened, actually. One minute, she was trying to destroy him, and the next, they were back to back trying to ward off the GZPD. The Fentons arrived at some point, heralding the panicked retreat of the haunters. Phantom had stayed just long enough to catch Walker and the Lunch Lady inside a Fenton Thermos before Maddie convinced him to go. That left three guards, who were easily defeated before Valerie fled as well, leaving the Fentons to take the credit and/or blame.

She winced and put a hand to her bruised ribs as she lowered herself into her computer chair. She didn't even remember getting hurt, and her father had been livid when he found out. It had been all she could do to convince him that she just needed some painkillers and she'd be fine, that it was wasn't nearly as bad as it seemed even though it was. Fortunately, her early classes hadn't involved homework; she just wanted to check her email for any messages from Vlad Masters, and then it was off to bed for a few weeks.

"What the heck?" she muttered. The expected message from Vlad was there, but she ignored it favor of one with "About Phantom…" in the subject line. The sender's address was mangled into something like L33T with some binary thrown in for good measure. It had to be a virus, but her hand clicked on it almost of its own accord.

"I be1i3v3 w3 hve a mu7ua1 9urp05e," it rather painfully read. "F0r n0w, at th3 v3ry 1ea5t. Nam3ly, the a6j3c7 hu/i1i7i0n of a c3r7ain gh0st child wh0 ha5 nam3d m3 a m057 5land3rou5 in5ult. I 7ru5t 7ha7 y0u wi11 pu7 wha7 I pr0vid3 to g00d u5e." It was signed in more L33t mingled with binary, and she almost didn't almost bother trying to puzzle through it. She changed her mind on noticing a small ASCII lightning bolt below the "name."

It was mysterious, over dramatic, and signed with a symbol for electricity. "Electra," Valerie scoffed, then winced as her ribs complained. "And here I thought you two were friends." She wasn't certain what she expected when she opened the attached text file, but it certainly wasn't the ghost boy's private journal. She clapped her hands over her mouth to stifle her laughter. Bed could wait.

'It rains too much in Washington, and it's way too cold. I swear, it feels like there's ghosts everywhere. The house is pretty nice, though. That mural bugs me, though. I keep expecting it to move or something. And I know there were two people on it yesterday.'

Valerie stared at the text, trying to make sense of it. She knew the Fentons had gone to Washington around November; the ghost kid had followed them there? She scrolled down to the next entry, laughing faintly. Very few of them were longer than a paragraph or two from what she could see.

'That thing attacked Jazz. I think it may have been Julia, actually. She was all bloated and covered in seaweed, and I think her neck was broken. It was really creepy and disgusting, but Jazz seems okay. She didn't even know anything was going on. I will never understand how she could sleep through that screaming, though. That thing didn't set off my ghost sense, for some reason. I mean, Kat never does either, but being around her is like being around normal humans. This place makes me feel like it should be going off and just isn't.'

'Julia came back. She actually possessed Jazz, this time, and Ronan had that Roy guy down on the beach. I fought them off, but I'm going to have to go after them. Can I even survive under water? I've never really needed to find out if I need air.'

Valerie blinked in confusion. He was a ghost; how could he be concerned about survival if he was already dead? Why would he need air if ghosts didn't have lungs? She read on, hoping that some kind of answer would be forthcoming.

'Home, at last! Ronan and Julia were really freaking me out. I wonder what Vlad wanted. I didn't even see him the whole time, and that's not like him.'

She filed that away to ask Mr. Masters about and skimmed through a few accounts of ghost battles. Although part of her wanted to believe that it was all some trick Phantom and Electra had put together, she had to admit that hearing his point of view was fascinating. It also reminded her disturbingly of Danny, but what about the ghost kid didn't? She yawned and started to stretch, but her ribs took that moment to remind her that they were in pain. She stood carefully to shut off the light and made her way to bed.

Moments after she began to snore softly, an errant wisp of consciousness grumbled as it drifted out ofher computer. The ghost hunter was supposed to have emailed the rest of the school. Obviously, Kat had misjudged her. "Whatever," she muttered, turning the monitor back on. "I'll just get someone else to do it. Let's see; who's in your address book?"

* * *

The most popular girl in Casper High stared dreamily at her monitor, or more specifically, at her desktop wallpaper. She was rather proud of that picture since it was usually so difficult to get them. Ghosts never showed up well on film, but Danny Phantom showed up just fine for some reason. It had caused no end of controversy over whether or not he was really a ghost.

No, the reason it was so difficult to get the ghost boy on film was simply because he was so difficult to catch. He was seldom found not in a fight with some other ghost, making it nigh impossible to get a good picture without being killed or the camera destroyed. Paulina knew she had been lucky to get a shot of him fighting the Wisconsin Ghost, both locked in a gloriously fierce struggle for the upper hand. A pity he'd lost that fight, she thought.

The computer beeped suddenly, startling her out of her reverie. She made a face at the little window announcing that she had mail and almost didn't click on it. However, the vague hope that the ghost boy would send her an email prompted her to go ahead. She completely missed the address in the face of the subject line. With a sudden thrill of delight, she moved on to the obscurely written message.

"Da3r Pau1ina," she read aloud, unsure whether to giggle at the L33T or simply be annoyed. Unlike Valerie's message, written in the heat of anger, this one was almost readable. It made an appeal to her "love" of the ghost boy before informing her of what was contained. The girl repressed a squeal of delight as she brought up the file and skimmed through it.

'I got caught staring at Paulina again. I thought Sam was going to kill me, but that banshee showed up and distracted her. Why is it always the tourists who stand right in the middle of a fight? You'd think everyone running and screaming around them would convince them to move, but no. That guy better appreciate me saving him. Dang, my arm hurts.'

Paulina giggled and stared dreamily at the text. She was beyond delighted to know that her ghost boy thought of her, but she did wonder why that freaky goth girl's opinion meant anything to him. She started to use her curiosity on that point as justification to continue reading, then decided that she didn't need any justification and read on anyway.

'Okay, it is way too late, and I am so grounded. But who cares? I just spent the day trying to beat some crazy lady on a motorcycle. I can't believe how tough she was to beat! I mean, the only weapon she had to use against me was an ecto-pistol. I'd almost rather have been fighting Technus. At least, he's predictable. Oh well, Ebony Angel's in prison, and that's all that matters.'

An instant messenger window popped up. She started to close it with an aggravated huff, then stopped. Really, this was too good not to share. "Hey Star," she typed. "U have got to c this!"

"?" was the reply. Paulina ignored her and sent the file across before going back to the journal.

'Angel escaped. She just wanted to talk; it was weird. She asked me not to stop her because she didn't want to hurt me because I reminded her of her, or something like that. She showed me her face, too. Apparently, that's pretty rare. Anyway, then we fought for a while and I had to chase her all over town twice before the police set up some roadblocks and we finally got her boxed in. I accidentally destroyed her bike and she totally freaked out. It was weird, but it was kind of sad, too. What would that be like, to have a motorcycle as your only friend? I found out that it was made by this guy named Frank, and when he died, she just lost it. It was actually kind of scary. I mean, how close am I to turning into that?'

Star sent another message, but Paulina shut down the program. She stared at the last entry in a considerably more somber mood, almost regretting that she sent the journal to her friend. In fact, she almost stopped reading, but curiosity overwhelmed her guilt.

'Okay, that was the freakiest week I have ever had. I was trying to help Wulf, but Walker almost caught us, so I ran and hid in this room full of mirrors. But they're not ordinary mirrors; I mean, what is ordinary in the Ghost zone, right? Anyway, there were these creatures there, behind the mirrors, that called themselves the Guardians of Space. I guess they're a little like Clockwork or something. Anyway, they sent me to this freaky alternate dimension where I never got ghost powers, and so there was no one to beat Pariah Dark when he attacked. It was horrible. Mom was dead. Dad was just…well, he wasn't Dad. Everyone was living in these little shielded communities. Then it turned out that Plasmius had destroyed Pariah and taken over, and he was the one behind everything, now. We beat him off, so I think everything's okay now, but it still kind of scares me to wonder if that had happened here.'

Paulina blinked and bit her lip shamefully. Had it been anyone else, she might not have cared, but this was her hero. She didn't have any right to invade his privacy. She opened her instant messenger program to tell Star not to send that to anyone else, but it was probably all over school already. She was the worst gossip sometimes.

* * *

A/N: Apologies for the 1337, and any mistakes it may contain. This site won't allow most of the symbols; I went through and re-did it, but I may have missed a symbol or two. I hate that "language" so much...


	3. Chapter Two

The school was abuzz when Danny, Sam, and Tucker entered. The jovial atmosphere was uncharacteristic for the hour, better suited to the time school let out, rather than began. "Wow," Tucker said, laughing lightly. "I haven't seen everyone this excited since Kat told everyone you had a boyfriend."

"Shut up," Danny muttered. He still found tabloid articles about his alter ego's potential sex life.

Sam snickered suddenly. "Hey, you remember that magazine with the guy claiming to be impregnated-"

"Sam, enough!" the ghost boy exclaimed, turning an interesting shade of red. He found it painfully difficult to forget that particular cover. Fortunately, the sound of Valerie's voice calling his name distracted his friends from pursuing the issue.

"Hey, Danny," she said, arriving out of breath. "Can I talk to you alone?"

Sam seemed about to argue, but Tucker turned her around and started to push her away. "We'll just leave you lovebirds alone," he laughed. Despite his amusement, however, the look in his eye told her they didn't intend to go far.

Valerie spared a moment to wonder why they disliked her so much before dragging her attention back to her purpose. "Listen, remember how you used to be friends with that ghost girl, Electra? You know, back when we all thought she was human?"

Danny repressed a grin and the desire to mention that they still were friends. "Yeah, I remember her. What's up?"

The girl looked furtively around and dragged him to the side of the hall. "She sent me an email last night. I thought she just sent it to me, but now it's all over the school. You knew her better than anyone, and I just…" She trailed off helplessly, confused and unsure. It wasn't as though she could just admit to being the mysterious ghost hunter, after all. "I guess I'm just wondering why."

"What was it?" After a moment's hesitation, Valerie handed him the sheaf of papers she had printed earlier to study in school. After a moment, he narrowed his eyes, and she almost thought that they glowed. But that was silly. He shrugged with careful nonchalance, but his voice was tight with anger when he finally said, "Couldn't tell you."

Valerie wanted to press the subject, but the bell rang, and he took the opportunity to get away as fast as his feet could carry him. Obviously, he knew something more than he was telling, but what? She shrugged mentally and decided to confront him about it later. Her ribs still hurt, and she needed to sit down.

First period was always the worst. It wasn't as bad on the days that they had health because she often spent the hour exchanging notes with Danny. This was not one of those days. Fortunately, she had some interesting reading material to survive the class, and a glance around told her it would not be out of place. Everyone seemed to have a copy of Phantom's journal. She repressed a smirk at the thought that the ghost kid was probably going crazy by then and turned to where she had left off from breakfast.

'I am never going back to Carnate Island. Ever. Ever! Oh man, I swear she's right behind me. I keep seeing white out of the corner of my eyes, and I turn but it's just the wall. Or a cloud out the window. Or my shirt. We got there at night. It was getting close to dark when the storm hit, but it was still light out. I don't know how long I was asleep, but the moon was pretty high when I woke up. Jazz said that was weird actually. It was a little less than a half moon, but she said it should have been almost full. I don't know, maybe Silver was messing with my head.

'But those monsters. I'm almost afraid those were real. I didn't see them after she let me go, but it was daylight. They didn't seem to like the light. Mom and Dad said it was just a dream, and I did wake up in the RV and maybe it was a dream, but it was still real! Silver was real. I know she was. She had to be. There's no way all that stuff was in my head. Even the most twisted ghost I've ever met wasn't that insane and twisted. She scared me. More than anything.'

Valerie lifted her head quickly when the teacher raised his voice, but he was only trying to make a point. It didn't appear to have dawned on him that no one was paying attention. After a moment, she read the entry again. She knew Danny had gone to Carnate Island, and she knew whatever happened there had messed with his head. He hadn't been quite the same when he came back, and the subsequent trip to Baltimore followed by whatever it was later attacking Amity Park had only made things worse. He was doing better, but he still got that haunted expression whenever someone mentioned it. She had quickly learned not to.

She read the last paragraph a third time; if she hadn't known any better, she would have guessed Danny was the one who wrote it. He even mentioned Jazz and "Mom and Dad". Ghosts didn't have families, did they? And even if they did, what were the odds that Phantom had a sister named Jazz, and that the whole Phantom family had followed the Fentons to Carnate? The answer was painfully obvious, and she made a conscious decision not to believe it. There had to be another explanation. There just had to be.

* * *

Immediately upon finding out what, exactly, was going around school, Tucker convinced Mikey to photocopy Danny's journal. It was a horrible thing for a friend to do, and he almost felt guilty. But, like Kat, he wanted to know what Danny really thought of him. Thus it was that second period found him skimming the first few entries for his name. He was surprised to realize that he wasn't surprised by what Danny really thought.

The he found the entry about the day Fiona arrived in everyone's lives.

'Okay, I just had the weirdest dream. I dreamed that I was running home from school, and I ran inside, and there was this girl there who looked just like me, and Mom and Dad told me she was my long lost twin sister. Okay, it wasn't a dream, but I really wish it had been. It's like everyone expects me to be so happy to see this girl I've never met and just love her immediately and she kind of freaks me out. She's way too perky and happy. And I don't believe these stories she's telling us for one second. Actually, I'm kind of hoping she's an evil ghost that has everyone under some kind of spell.'

Tucker repressed a snicker. He didn't remember much about when Fiona was there; once her spell wore off, everyone had hazy memories at best. He did remember how much Danny disliked the girl, although personally, he thought she did him some good. Fiona had arrived shortly after Danny came back from Carnate Island, and he was almost his old self again when she left. Still, try telling him that.

'And now, she's got me thinking about Silver again. Great. I went the whole day without freaking out because someone wore white, and she had to go mention playing games. Whatever. Everyone was acting crazy today. Tucker was practically drooling. It's kind of creepy because she looks just like me, but everyone thinks she's hot. Even Dash was trying to get me to get her phone number and I'm like Dude, it's the same as mine. Then she was trying to convince us that she had been sold into slavery in Mexico, and I'm the only one not believing this! Anyway, I saw Kat, too. Man, she's looking bad for some reason. She said something's overshadowing the patterns of power or something. I can't help but think that this started when Fiona showed up.'

'Okay, I'm now officially freaked out. Kat said Fiona's not a ghost. She doesn't set off my ghost sense, so I think I agree. But just now, while we were walking home from practice, she said she was half ghost like me and transformed right in front of me. Well, no. What she said was that she was a halfa, which is the most ridiculous name anyone has ever come up with. I haven't heard that term in months, not since that time I met Pointdexter. I wonder where she heard it.'

Tucker glanced around quickly to make sure no one had noticed his errant chuckle. Memories of the time Pointdexter had switched bodies with Danny were too funny not to laugh at. Although he resented being accused of drooling, he had to read on. After all, he would to need tease Danny about it later.

'Today was the worst day ever. I was just trying to chase a few ghosts, maybe blow off a little steam, and Fiona kept showing up. And she's stronger than me, or something. No, I think she must have a deal going on with these ghosts because she beat every one of them in like one hit. On the bright side, I met someone she seems to be scared of today. I don't know who this person is, but I think she has some kind of power. I'd been wondering why the Box Ghost kept appearing no matter how many times I sent him back, but I think this lady was bringing him back. I just wish I knew why. I've been searching Google for Deus ex Machina because she mentioned it. It seemed pretty important, but all I can find is stuff about how it's used in fiction. This isn't fiction; it's real life. Still, some of this stuff describes Fiona perfectly.'

'I've change my mind. Yesterday was the worst day ever. That woman, Elegy got blasted back to her home planet or something by Fiona, and then it was like I was under her spell. I just spent the whole day, actually day and a half honestly believing that she was my twin sister and happy to have her around. I never ever want to do that again. It was worse than the time Freak Show had me hypnotized. Well, at least she's gone now. For good if we're lucky.'

"Foley!"

Tucker cringed and glanced up. Apparently, the teacher had been calling his name for some time. With a sigh of regret, he put the sheaf of papers into her outstretched hand and dropped his head on his fist.


	4. Chapter Three

Valerie felt betrayed. She refused to meet Danny's eyes as she passed him in the hall. Although she continued to not believe he could possibly be Danny Phantom, the obvious similarities crashed around her head, mocking her for not knowing. And still, she held onto the hope that it was all a trick. There were any number of reasons Electra and Phantom would do such a thing. They were evil ghosts, after all, and probably hoped to turn her against Danny. It was obvious that she liked him; they wouldn't be the first ghosts to notice.

And then she remembered the time she fought that wishing ghost, and how Desiree had mocked her for not knowing. The ghost had never mentioned what it was that she didn't know, but they had been talking about Danny. The human Danny, that is.

No, it wasn't possible. Danny was nice; he was a good person. Phantom wasn't. That still didn't explain what he'd written on coming back from Baltimore.

'Silver came back. I knew going to Baltimore was a bad idea. It's where we had to leave from when we went to Carnate. At least, she wasn't as bad this time. Oh, what did I do? I shot her. I shot her with her own gun and I killed her. I can't believe it. I couldn't have. It couldn't have been me. I don't even remember doing it. I need to write this down or I'll go insane. It started a little after we got there, down in the party. She started messing with my head again, making me see things that weren't there.

'I went back to the room and fell asleep and dreamed that there were dog things chasing me, the Maulers. Man, those things were freaky. They had dog bodies, but they were so thin I could see their skeletons, and their faces were almost human. Anyway, they were chasing me and Silver and two of her marksmen showed up to destroy them. I didn't get it then, but now I do. She said I was hers, that she wanted to be part of me. She's completely insane.

'Anyway, when I woke up, the news was on. They were talking about monsters, so I went out to look for everyone. I found Mom, and she found out about me. After Silver died and I got those new powers, I made her forget, though. I almost wish I hadn't. I can hear thinking her downstairs now, trying to figure out how Phantom managed to fool her into thinking I was Fenton, but it's still better than hearing her think about what a horrible mother she is for not figuring it out sooner.

'Okay. I really don't want to relive this, but I think I need to. Copperfield caught up to us. It was me and Mom and that Ed guy from the PS. I told them to hide, and then I fought Copperfield and his maulers. He got away from me, and I thought he was going to kill Mom, and then Silver showed up and killed him. Well, actually, I'm not sure what she did because I don't think they can actually die, but he was gone, anyway. It was really freaky too; the maulers ran over and started eating him. Silver told us Ed was behind the whole attack because he'd been importing monsters from Carnate, and then she shot him. And then we fought.

'I can't do this. I killed her. Me! I'

It ended there, as though he didn't have the courage to finish, or even look at it for another second. It was Danny's "voice", not Phantom's. Those were the words of a scared fourteen-year-old boy, not an evil, sarcastic ghost. Valerie would almost have been tempted to believe Electra had actually stolen his journal if that entry weren't immediately followed by:

'Technus just attacked me with an army of Robo Raptors outside the Radio Shack. That ghost has officially reached an all-time low. In lighter news, I think I've finally gotten control of this telekinesis thing. At least things weren't flying around the room freaking everyone out today. Now if I could just figure out how to keep from broadcasting everything I'm thinking.'

Valerie remembered that. She had thought Danny was being stalked by Phantom, but it was becoming painfully obvious that they were the same person.

'Well, great. Now Angel's back in town. We raced around for a while until I got her out on the back roads and I convinced her to give up. I know she's planning something; she wouldn't give up that easily.'

'I should have known Technus wasn't finished yet. Him and Angel attacked me together, then he took her motorcycle and I woke up down at the warehouse she was staying in. We finally beat him, though, and Angel says since I helped her get her bike back, she won't bother me again. She really does love that thing. Oh well, we'll see how long this lasts.'

It was strange, though. She had seen Phantom and Fenton in the same place before, and that was the only thing that kept her from marching out of class and down the hall to confront him. As soon as the teacher's back was turned, she flipped through the specific time she was thinking of, when Phantom brought Fenton home after Silver attacked Amity Park.

'I am so tired. I can't believe it's actually over. I mean, I thought it was over after Carnate, then Baltimore happened and now, I keep looking over my shoulder expecting her to be there. I talked to Jazz, and I think I got it figured out. Whenever Silver killed someone, their ghost got trapped in her head. She was crazy to begin with, and that must have made the ghosts crazy which made her even more crazy and it was just this huge chain reaction that got worse and worse. That's got to be where she got her psychic powers, too. Or maybe she already had them, but I'm convinced the Malice made them stronger. She just wasn't human anymore.

'Anyway, when she took over my other half and all her voices vanished, she seemed to lose her will. I was feeling sorry for her, but I'm back together, so I'm not anymore. She was too evil. She didn't care about anyone but herself. I'm not entirely convinced I killed her anymore, either. Diego, her husband, was the strongest spirit in the Malice, and I think he may have possessed me back in Baltimore. I don't know, maybe I'm just in denial or something, but it makes me feel a little better.'

Valerie tightly closed her eyes. It all made perfect sense if he could split himself in half, which that second paragraph seemed to imply. She checked the time, toyed with the notion of burning the thing and forgetting it ever existed, and forced her eyes back down.

* * *

Danny dropped his head onto his folded arms and prayed no one would notice his burning ears. He remembered only too well the disastrous school musical, and how poor Rick, who was supposed to play the Phantom, had been possessed by Erik the auditorium ghost. Rick was one of five people in the entire school who actually objected to people reading Danny's journal. The poor thespian had been removed to the back of the classroom and had a trashcan dumped over his head. Surprisingly, Paulina had also decided to object, but no one was listening to her, either. 

"Okay, okay!" announced the only kid in the room who had not had his copy confiscated yet. "Look, I'll read it aloud, okay?" As the rest of the class, or the majority at least, agreed that was suitable, Danny could feel his face getting hotter. He knew if he looked up, his glowing eyes would give him away, but he couldn't seem to get it under control. He just prayed no one would figure it out because he wasn't sure he could live down the shame.

"I am never going anywhere near the auditorium again," that annoying teen began.

'Never. I mean it. Well, no. Erik's gone, so I guess it's okay. That was still pretty freaky, though. And kind of scary. I had no idea who I was. At least I wasn't as under his spell as everyone else was. I want to know how he avoided me for so long. He must not have been very powerful, but then how'd he managed to brainwash everyone into thinking Phantom of the Opera was real? Oh, well. At least, everyone's okay. And Rick seems to be okay after being overshadowed.'

"He knows my name!" exclaimed a muffled yet joyous voice from underneath the trashcan. Rick pushed it off, grinning broadly. "Paulina, eat your heart out!"

"He knows my name, too," she retorted, uncertain whether to consider the boy competition or not. Danny didn't know whether to laugh or cry as he listened to the two fight over who his ghost half liked better. It was with great relief that he heard the door open.

"Everyone to your seats," Mr. Lancer ordered. "I'll be taking that, thank you." There was a collective groan, and Danny finally felt safe enough to lift his head. As soon as school let out, he was going to kill Kat.


	5. Chapter Four

Mr. Lancer was curious. He couldn't help it; he was only human, after all. Oh, he would never have been one to buy a supermarket tabloid, but having confiscated no less than fifty-three copies of what was reputedly Danny Phantom's journal had made him wonder exactly what about it made everyone lose their minds.

Yes, he was a hero. Yes, he was a ghost. Lancer wanted to believe that people were simply looking to humanize the ghost boy, somehow. Perhaps they sought to put a more familiar face to their oft distant hero. Then he saw Paulina and Rick arguing about who Phantom would rather go out with and remembered that they were all teenagers. For the great majority of them, it was pure sensationalism.

Still, he had to confess to certain thrill at the thought of what those pages contained. Phantom had saved his life more than once from the myriad ghosts that insisted on rampaging the school, and he did simply want a deeper look into the hero's psyche. It was of endless fascination to him that anyone with the maturity level of a fourteen-year-old boy would willingly choose to lay life or existence on the line to save people he had never met. Like Phantom or hate him, there was something almost…philosophical about him.

Consequently, he found himself almost unwillingly flipping through the stack of pages during his free hour. There was no one else in the teachers' lounge; he wasn't sure he wanted to know what his colleagues would think to see him stoop so low. They had all read it, so why shouldn't he? Surely, simple curiosity was nothing to be ashamed of. Maybe just one entry…

'Oh, this is just what I need. Ghosts on one side, and ghost hunters on the other. I just got back from 917, and I have no idea how I'm going to handle them when they attack. I mean, I beat off Pariah's skeleton ghosts, but that was different. Those things didn't think, they just attacked. This haunting team can think, though. They won't just rush at me; they'll use strategy. I don't think I trust this Ghost Master at all. There's something off about him.'

Lancer looked around almost furtively. He half expected the ghost boy himself to suddenly appear in a flurry of ghostly anger, and he honestly couldn't decide whether that would be a relief or not. It was a complicated feeling and difficult to properly articulate.

'Ghost Master attacked today. It wasn't too bad, actually. I had more trouble with the PS. That alligator of his was attacking them, and then he tried to hold Sam hostage, but she's okay. Then this weird gypsy lady showed up and tried to convince me to join them which I'm not going to do. Then they all just left. I was kind of surprised, actually. I expected them to give me more trouble than that.'

'Now, I know not all ghosts are evil. Hey, I'm not, right? But I never actually expected to meet other ghosts who weren't evil. I'm still not too sure about them, but I think they just want to have fun. Of course, their idea of fun is going around scaring people, but at least they're not trying to do any damage.

'I had a nice long conversation with a few of them when the PS captured us. They're all musicians in some way, which is actually kind of cool. Apparently, that's why they're a team in the first place, that and the fact that most of them were killed by the alligator at some point. They were actually pretty friendly. I was surprised. Then the PS tried to kill us, but Mom saved us. That was weird actually. I wonder why.'

The doorknob rattled. Wonderings of why it was strange immediately forgotten, he quickly shoved the paper to the side of the table with the others and pretended to have been working on something else. "Ah, hello, Charles," he said, attempting to sound bored.

"Yo!" the "cool" teacher replied brightly, dropping heavily into a chair. He sounded amused, but as long as he didn't say anything…

Lancer repressed a laugh and looked up. "Is it really so difficult to act your age from time to time?" he asked, affecting disapproval.

"It gives the kids something to laugh at behind my back, and that makes them more inclined to pay attention to what I'm saying." Then he smirked and leaned back. "That a prob, old man?"

"Well, as long as they're learning…" Lancer allowed, choosing not to hear the "old man" comment.

The two colleagues sat in relative silence for a time, both wondering if the other would speak first. Lancer, of course, had no intention of drawing attention to anything dealing with ghost boy. That might lead to his fellow teacher realizing that he had been participating in an act he had previously condemned, if the man didn't already. He probably did. "So you read it yet?" Charles asked, the knowing tone as obvious as a white crow.

Lancer cringed inwardly and was rather proud of himself for keeping a level tone. "I believe I made my views on that subject quite plain."

"He said, pointedly avoiding the question."

"Why do you see fit to narrate everything anyone says?" Lancer demanded. It was one of the man's more annoying qualities.

He shrugged and stood. "Why do you see fit to deny that you're curious? Later!"

Despite his relief at the sudden change of subject, Lancer couldn't help but ask, "Leaving so soon?"

"Hour's almost up," Charles pointed out, laughing. "Time flies when you're reading someone else's diary, doesn't it?" He slid out the door while the surprised English teacher was still trying to think of a comeback.

* * *

'I just got out of the hospital. No one seems to remember what happened, but there were dead bodies lying everywhere. The news people said it looked like corpses had clawed their way out of the cemetery, but that no one actually died. That's good, but I wonder what happened exactly. Kat's about as helpful as usual.'

Valerie scoffed bitterly; she could have filled in the blanks for him. A giant dragon ghost made of ethereal bone had stolen life from the living and used it to raise an army of zombies. Andrew Phantom, or Sandruu as he called himself, had come back in time to stop something from happening. He had said he needed to stop Necrowind from being summoned a second time in his future, but she had begun to wonder about that. She had no doubts that he believed that, but it was too contrived, too convoluted. It made no sense.

Andrew Phantom…or was it Andrew Fenton? He'd had that same black hair, those same blue eyes. At least, the one that wasn't a red square of futuristic technology was blue. He had said that his father was a ghost, but that he wasn't. She never did ask him about that. She didn't ask near as many questions as she wanted to, respecting his fear that he would erase his existence. Consequently, he was one big puzzle. There was Phantom's suave certainty in one second, followed in the next by Danny's nervous laughter upon realizing he'd stuck his foot in his mouth again.

She could never decide who the mysterious cyborg reminded her of more, steadfastly refusing to settle on the obvious compromise of both. At the time, it didn't much matter. She had decided that she liked Sandruu no matter whose child he was. It was hard to fight alongside a person without coming to some kind of understanding, after all. Still, it had taken time to decide that. He'd been so endearingly absent-minded at times, only to spout the ghost boy's favorite line of "Not all ghosts are evil" and remind her once again of her sworn enemy.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to be forced to help your father's murderer?" he had demanded, when she first voiced her theory on his parentage. "Not only that, but to hear to the insults, the hatred, and be forced to ignore it?"

And suddenly, the world slammed to a halt as she remembered the rest of that conversation. "Because of you, my father is now a mindless murder victim. He doesn't even recognize us anymore; all he cares about is revenge. And right now, I'm half tempted to get it for him, consequences be damned!"

And when she pointed out that the boy had tried to kill her: "He always held back when he fought you! …Always. I watched him. I know. But when you found out he was...doesn't matter...never mind. You don't care; you never did."

He hadn't been sent back in time to stop someone from resurrecting the Bone Dragon. He'd been sent back in time to stop a young ghost hunter named Valerie from killing the ghost boy, Danny Phantom.

…Danny Fenton…

Valerie bolted from the classroom, heedless of the teacher calling her back.


	6. Chapter Five

"Okay," Danny began quietly. "Is anyone staring at me yet?" 

Sam pushed the inedible cuisine around her plate with her spork and chuckled quietly. "A few, but as soon as they get to the part where Fiona turned you into a girl, they all will be."

"I kept that one in the other file," he explained, relaxing marginally.

'Wait, wait," Tucker laughed. "Not only do you keep a diary, you keep two of them?"

"They're journals," Danny shot back. "I'm kind of trying to lead a double life here, guys. They…help me remember who I am…" He shrugged as though attempting to imply that the confession was only obvious. "Okay, how many people know me well enough to put two and two together?"

"I think just us," Sam replied.

She shot Tucker a warning glare as he opened his mouth, but he merely added, "And Valerie." Immediately, the ghost boy tensed up again, earning a hissed, "Danny! Eyes!"

He closed them until he could get the glow under control again. "Maybe she won't figure it out…" he moaned without much hope. "Is she watching me?"

There was a long pause, during which he finally opened his eyes to see his friends try to look around without being obvious about it. At last, Tucker said, "Actually, I don't see her anywhere."

"Me neither," Sam agreed, worried.

Danny sighed and dropped his head onto his fist. "She's probably hiding somewhere waiting to ambush me."

The goth girl shook her head dubiously. "I can't believe Kat would do something like this."

"Oh, I'm not surprised. She's Katrina Technus, after all," he pointed out, emphasizing her last name. "I am going to kill her when I see her."

"Can she even be killed?" Tucker asked, snickering. Although the question was mostly rhetoric, his two friends found themselves wondering the same thing.

"Well, you said she's not a ghost, right?" Sam offered.

Danny thought about that for perhaps a second or two longer than necessary. "Technically, she's an astral projection, but she might as well be a ghost. I mean, I've caught her in the Fenton Thermos before; she can't get through ghost shields unless she uses her power to disrupt the field." He shrugged and changed the subject to something less potentially volatile.

* * *

Dash wasn't the brightest fellow in school. Everything he knew about science could be summed up in the two words "It worked." He knew about nanobots; they were all over movies and television, after all. However, he didn't really know what they were, or how they could cause Danny Phantom to suddenly, for all intents and purposes, go insane. 

'I don't feel so good. Skulker got me with something today. Man, I thought I was going to die there for a while. At least my powers still seem to be working okay. Maybe whatever he did didn't work. Oh well, I'm about to go out and test them to be sure.'

It wasn't too bad in that entry. The next one started to get a bit confusing.

'01001111kay, now I'm bored. I know everything! This is so coo1. 01001101an, I don't know00100000what Skulker was trying to d01101111, but I don't th01101001nk it was supposed to make me a00100000genius00101110'

Dash was actually confused enough that he asked the nerds for help, but they said they didn't speak binary. Since he had no idea what they said beyond the fact that they couldn't help, he shoved them all their lockers. As a last resort, he finally found Tucker, who at least offered to help figure it out.

"I think that's a space," he said, pointing at one of the codes.

"I got that," Dash snapped, even though he didn't. "I'm not stupid, you know. What's this one say?"

'010010010010000001101010011101010111001101110100001000000110100001100001d the weirdest dream ever00101110 Serious0110110001111001. 01010100011001010110001101101000011011100111010101110011 was there fo011100100010000001110011011011110110110101100101001000000111001001100101ason, and Vlad, and there were 01101100011010010111010001110100011011000110010100100000011100110110100101101100011101100110010101 1100100010000001100010011101010110011101110011 everywhere and011010000110010100100111011100110010000001101001011011100010000001101101011110010 010000001101000011001010110000101100100001000000110011101100101011101000010000001101000 011010010110110100100000011011110111010101110100001000000110100100100000011010110110111001101111 0111011100100000011010000110010100100111011100110010000001110100011010000110010101110010011001010 010000001010100011001010110001101101000011011100111010101110011001000010010000001001001001000000110 10110110111001101111011101110010000001111001011011110111010100100000011000110110000101101110001000000 11010000110010101100001011100100010000001101101011001010010000100100000010001110110010101110100011 011110111010101110100011001110110010101110100011011110111010101110100011001110110010101110100011011 110111010101110100'

Tucker stared at the entry, vaguely wondering if Danny had ever even noticed he'd done that. "Um…" he tried. After a moment, he began tapping on his PDA. "There's got to be a program to translate that somewhere."

Dash stared down at the ever increasing number of zeroes and ones, glad to know that it wasn't just him for once. He waited somewhat impatiently while the computer nerd apparently found what he was looking for and started trying to feed the numbers into his PDA. "Okay!" he announced at last. "It says, 'I just had the weirdest dream ever. Seriously. Technus was there for some reason, and Vlad, and there were little silver bugs everywhere andhe's in my head get him out i know he's there Technus! I know you can hear me! Getoutgetoutgetout'

The two boys stared at each other and unanimously decided that they did not want to know after all.

* * *

Had anyone thought to look up, they might have seen the mysterious ghost hunter race across the sky. They might have wondered what invisible spectral villain their second hero was chasing this time, for she was moving far too fast to simply be out and about. It probably would not have occurred to anyone that she might be running away from something, or that she might be flying blind, lost in grief. 

She didn't know who he was anymore. Consequently, she didn't know who she was anymore, either. She had dedicated her life to hunting down the ghost kid, but the ghost kid was the only boy in school she had even considered calling more than a friend. He was Danny, and he was Phantom. It couldn't be possible.

So if she was trying to hunt down Phantom, then she was also trying to hunt down Danny, and she liked Danny, but she hated Phantom, and-

"Argh!" she yelled, clutching her head. Flying wasn't helping; she landed on an apartment building and started to pace.

"They're the same person!" she wailed. "No Fenton; no Phantom…just…just…"

Just Danny. And she liked Danny. And she hated him. "Why didn't you tell me?" she demanded, as though he could magically respond. Or as though the answer weren't obvious…

Two choices: love or hate. Fenton or Phantom. Human or ghost. Because it couldn't be both. It could never be both. The human was good, sweet, loveable. The ghost…

But no good, sweet, loveable human would turn around and be an evil, sarcastic, lying ghost. No, but the ghost might be pretend to be human.

"I thought you liked me…" she whispered. For just a moment, she was tempted to fall to her knees. But if Danny lied, then Sandruu lied, and Clockwork lied, and…

They were ghosts, and ghosts were evil.

And ghosts needed to be destroyed.

* * *

A/N: I'd now like to apologize for the formatting on the binary. It was supposed to have been one long string of code, but it stretched the screen. So I kind of broke it up at random. So if you try to run it through a translator, you might get an odd translation. Sorry. 


	7. Chapter Six

Danny moped and slouched down the hall. People were staring; there were whispers. Enough of them had figured enough out, and now everyone had an idea who the ghost boy was. He had to think of some way to throw them off, make them think it was all a lie. But how? He briefly wished the nanobots were still active; he could have used whatever was left of Technus' downloaded intelligence right then. Maybe the Ghost Catcher… 

Someone screamed. Danny had just enough time to wonder why his ghost sense hadn't gone off when he heard the roar of Valerie's jet sled. He threw himself out of the way moments before it slammed into him and barely caught himself from shouting her name.

"You!" she screamed, leveling a plasma rifle at his head. "Who are you? Really?"

"I…don't know what you're talking about," he stammered. It was all he could do to remain sprawled out on the floor with every fiber of his being demanding that he go intangible and escape.

"Don't lie to me!" Valerie fired her weapon, and Danny rolled out of the way. He didn't need to transform for everyone to figure it out. All he had to do was keep dodging. Danny Fenton shouldn't have been near that athletic, and enough people had stuck around to watch that word would definitely get around.

He rolled beneath the second assault and ducked through the nearest door. Fortunately, the classroom was on the first floor since his escape route took him out the window. He heard a few screams as Valerie simply smashed through the wall after him.

It was every bit as bad as he had feared. Part of him had hoped that she would forgive and, eventually, forget, but he knew it would never happen. She hated his ghost half far too much. Left with no other alternative, he decided to simply be grateful that no one else was around to see him transform. "Valerie, please!" he shouted back, not daring to turn and face her. "I swear I never meant to hurt you!"

"You think I'm going to believe your lies after all this?" she returned over the sound of weapons fire.

"I tried to tell you-" Danny broke off with a pained gasp as he failed to dodge in time.

"You're going down, ghost!" Valerie roared, a menacing tone present that had never been there before. "I will hunt you down and rip you to pieces for everything you've done!"

She continued with a few terrifying explanations of what she would do if she ever caught him, and he forced himself not to listen. The real world was no longer safe; although he hated to admit, he needed to reach the Ghost Zone. If he was lucky, maybe she wouldn't follow him there. There were only two ways to get there that he knew of: since he had no desire to even look at Kat right then, that left the Fenton Portal. He angled for home.

The mad flight that followed would be forever imprinted on his mind as the worst thirty minutes ever. If he could have cried in his ghost form, he probably would have been. He knew Valerie was crying behind him, and somehow that made it even worse. She didn't want to listen. She didn't want to believe him. The more he begged, the more vicious she became.

He noticed that his parents were home, though the knowledge was immediately lost. He didn't stop to consider anything much as he phased through the door mere moments before it splintered into a thousand pieces behind him. An alarmed shout went in one ear and straight out the other, and he dove through the floor. Someone, probably his father, yelled, "Ghost!" Then he was staring at the closed portal.

Something crashed above him, and he rushed to get the door open. He heard his mother yell and a blast of energy hit the wall right next to his head. "You're not getting away that easy, ghost!" Valerie snarled.

Danny backed against the closed door, hands up in the manner of captured bad guys everywhere. "Please, Valerie! Just let me go, and I swear you'll never see me again!"

"I'll never see you again, anyway."

Her weapon charged. Maddie shouted something. The door opened behind him and there was a flash of light…

* * *

"Now do you see what your meddling has caused?" asked a wearied voice. 

Kat leaned against a wall, not bothering to be manifest. Her eyes, such as they were, were fixed on the floor. "I took out the obvious references. I didn't think she'd figure it out."

"You didn't think, period," Clockwork pointed out. He was angry; of course, he was angry. Between keeping Danny's evil older self in check and warding off the Observants, he had more than enough to keep him busy. The last thing was he needed was some egomaniacal would-be gremlin undoing everything he'd started by sending Sandruu back in time. Well, he still had a few tricks left to deal with the situation. There were any number of possible outcomes, after all.

Kat glanced up and immediately wished she hadn't. Cringing, she looked back down at the floor and wondered if he could actually see her. She couldn't even see her, but those eyes had unerringly found hers. It was disturbing, but only a minor note compared to everything else. "I'll fix it," she whispered. "Just tell me how, and I'll do it. Anything you want."

Clockwork nodded decisively. "I was rather hoping you would say that. Oh, don't worry. You have some time yet before I'll hold you to that promise. In the meantime, you do have quite a mess to clean up. I believe you know how to alter your appearance?"

* * *

The boy yawned over his open text book and let his head sink down to rest on the pages. Heroes shouldn't have to do homework, he thought. As many times as he had helped save his city, one would think he'd simply be allowed a passing grade, but no. Of course, not. 

He lifted his head and started to doodle in the margins of his notebook. He wasn't a spectacular artist by any means, but his art managed to portray what he would rather have been doing. It was a passable self-portrait engaged in a winning battle with what was most likely the Box Ghost.

With a snicker and a shake of his head, Shade went back to his thrice-cursed algebra. He actually made it a full thirty seconds before his mind began to wander, and he wondered what his alternate universe counterpart was up to. Even with Skulker and Electra trying to track him down, the visit to Danny's world had been a welcome vacation. It had been especially fun seeing that Skulker was really nothing more than a tiny blob of ectoplasm. That made it very difficult to be able to properly respect him.

Suddenly, his ghost sense went off, and he spared a moment to wonder which idiot had decided to attack him in his home before turning. "Clockwork…?" he asked after a moment's hesitation.

The elderly ghost nodded. He seemed torn between worry and exasperation for some reason, but Danny trusted him and that was good enough for Shade. "I have a…an interesting favor to ask."

"Can't be any worse than math," the ghost boy allowed with a shrug. "What's up?"

"I need you to pretend to be Danny for a few hours."

Shade was just about to point out that he was Danny in a poor attempt at a joke, but decided not to as the implications hit him. "What's happened?" he demanded.

"It's a long and complicated story. Perhaps when we return, I will tell you. For now, I simply need you to pretend to be human while Ms. Technus plays the part of Danny Phantom."

Damage control. Well, it was the least he could do. "You can bring me back to right now, right?" Clockwork managed a small smile and nodded. "Okay, then. I think I can remember how to be a normal human for a while." He stepped forward to allow himself to be teleported away.


	8. Epilogue

People were staring. Shade hadn't been stared at in months; it was decidedly unnerving. He'd gotten the basics of the matter, enough to have an idea what to say, though he had no idea what Kat would do. He decided to simply prepare himself for what his Electra would have done and took care to keep his head down. 

It was just as well that the astral projection didn't set off his ghost sense. As many people as were intently watching him after the day before, someone would have noticed. As it was, he jumped in barely feigned alarm when a pair of glowing green eyes appeared inches from his own. A few fangirls screamed in glee; one of them sounded suspiciously like Paulina.

"What were you thinking?" the disguised thespian demanded, grabbing him by the shirt collar.

Shade wasn't as quick to improvise as Kat; fortunately, his stammering gave him more credibility. "Y-you think this was my idea?" he shot back, grabbing the white gloved hands and forcing her away. "It was all Electra's fault. I had nothing to do with it."

She flinched, making him wonder what nerve he'd struck, then dropped down to stand on the floor and cross her arms. "Well, it was on your computer," she pointed out, recovering her aplomb.

People had gathered around to watch and snicker. He saw Sam and Tucker out of the corner of his eyes and wondered if they had been alerted to what was going on. It was the first time he'd seen them all day. "And that automatically makes it my fault? You know how good a hacker she is!"

A flash of a grin, quickly hidden. She seemed to accept the apologetic compliment, though in the interests of staying in character, she turned away and contrived to look annoyed.

"Besides," Shade went on when she didn't immediately reply. "Thanks to her, now everyone thinks I'm you."

"And this is a bad thing for you?"

"Um…everyone has been staring at me, and your ghost hunter tried to kill me yesterday."

Kat whirled back around to glare menacingly. "Oh, she's my ghost hunter now, is she?"

Shade opened his mouth to respond. He had just begun to wonder exactly how long the staged argument was supposed to go on as he was running out of things to say. Consequently, it was with great relief that he found himself interrupted by the ironic exclamation, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!"

The press of bodies shifted around to allow Mr. Lancer to make his way through. He faced down the actress with an expression of the utmost impatience and said, "At this moment, I do not care if you're a ghost or not. You have no right to trespass on school property and accost my students. Now, get out!"

She flashed that Cheshire Cat grin that was pure Katrina Technus, shrugged, and replied, "Whatever. Old man." And with that, she vanished through the ceiling. Lancer shooed all the students to their respective classes and made sure Shade was all right before going about his own business. The ghost boy started to turn and nearly collided with Danny's two friends.

"Hey, Shade," Tucker greeted quietly.

Shade fell in between them. "So they did tell you?"

Sam shook her head. "No one told us anything. What's going on?"

He paused a moment to marvel that they could tell the difference. No one he knew would have caught it that quickly. He shook his head. "No idea. Clockwork just wanted me to do a little damage control. He said he's looking for Danny and Valerie, but…I don't know. I think he already knows where they are. He just had this look."

The two friends glanced at each other over his head, unable to help but wonder if they would ever see their ghost boy again.

* * *

A/N: Am I bad? Don't worry. This little cliffhanger leads right into Dance of Pales. If you've been reading my little series for long enough, then you already have a general idea of what's about to happen. I'd like to thank all my reviews, and Sleep Warrior, Darkflame, and Random in specific. You guys are great, seriously.

If any of you have checked my profile lately (like since yesterday), you might notice that fic number 20 says Title pending. Well, as a huge thank you to all of you for the encouragement to keep me writing for 20 fics, I've got a little special planned. I hope everyone likes it, because I've been working really hard on it. I haven't decided on a good title yet, but even when I do, I'm considering leaving that pending tag alone until I post.


End file.
